The fate of 128 candidates, including Minister, K.T. Rajenthra Bhalaji, and three former Ministers, K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, Thangam Thennarasu and Vaigai Selvan, will be decided on Monday when the State goes for polls.
The district administration along with Election Commission has made elaborate arrangement for polling with adequate security at all the 1,872 polling stations in the seven Assembly segments in the district. The polling personnel along with police personnel carried the electronic voting machines (EVMs) to the polling stations.
Except for Virudhunagar and Aruppukottai Assembly seats that would have only one ballot unit, the remaining five constituencies will have two ballot units as the number of candidates is more than 15. The last option is given for NOTA (None of the above).
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The ballot units will display the names and photographs of the candidates and the symbols allocated them.
While 712 sensitive and critical polling stations would be covered with web casting, micro-observers, mostly employees from central Government institutions, including, nationalised banks, would be deployed to monitor polling process at 85 booths selected as critical, Virudhunagar Collector, V. Rajaraman, said.
Mock polling in the presence of representatives of political parties and candidates would be held between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. before the actual polling begins. Polling will go on till 6 p.m.
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Engineers from Bharat Electronics would be available at each Assembly constituency to attend on any major problem in the EVMs.
Voters could use the EPIC or voters slip distributed to them.
Otherwise, they could use anyone of the 11 permissible proof of identity to vote. They could also get electronic data of the details of part, serial and polling station by sending SMS of their EPIC card number to 1950.
After polling, the sealed EVMs would be taken to the two counting centres in Virudhunagar.
A statement from the Virudhunagar Superintendent of Police, P. Aravindhan, said that a total of Rs. 4.72 lakh was seized in the district by various flying squads, static surveillance teams and police while bribing voters .
A total of 30 cases were registered and 26 persons, including a woman, were arrested. Among 237 cases of violation of model code of conduct, the ruling AIADMK led with 98 cases followed by the DMK 60.
A total of 4,500 security personnel, including police, central paramilitary personnel, retired police, home guard and volunteers from scout would be deployed for poll duty.
Mr. Aravindhan said 14 Additional and Deputy Superintendents of Police, 55 Inspectors and 129 Sub-Inspectors of Police would be involved in the security arrangement.
Candidates
Rajapalayam: A.N. Ramachandra Raja of BJP; Communist Party of India (Marxist), A. Gurusamy, S. Thangapandian of DMK; A.A.S. Shyam (AIADMK) and P. Lakshmanan of PMK.
Srivilliputtur (Reserved): E. Ramasamy, M. Chandra Prabha (AIADMK), P. Lingam (CPI), S. Muthukumar of Puthiya Tamilagam and V. Vellaichamy of PMK.
Sattur: S. Ashok Kumar of Bahujan Samaj Party, V. Srinivasan of DMK, S.G. Subramanian of AIADMK, P. Gnanapandithan of BJP, P. Karthik Rajan of Shiva Sena, K. Pasupathi Devan of All India Forward Bloc, M. Balakrishanan of PMK, A.R. Raghuraman of MDMK.
Sivakasi: R. Sudhakaran (DMDK), A.G. Parthasarathy (BJP), K.T. Rajenthra Bhalaji (AIADMK), C. Sriraju (Congress), Thilagabama (PMK) and V. Maharajan (AIFB).
Virudhunagar: K. Kalanithi (AIADMK), S. Kamatchi (BJP), A.R.R. Srinivasan (DMK), M. Syed Haja Sherif (DMDK), and P. Ganesh Perumal (PMK).
Aruppukottai: K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran (DMK), E. Sundaraj (BSP), S. Senthil Kumar (CPI), R. Vetrivel (BJP), Vaigai Selvan (AIADMK), T. Aravind Kumar (PMK)
Tiruchuli: Siva Ilangovan (BSP), Thangam Thennarasu (DMK), K. Dinesh Babu (AIADMK), R. Ravirajan (BJP), T. Raju (DMDK), A. Muniyasamy (PMK) and M. Jagan Chakravarathi (AIFB).